Katter supports Jones on gas

Federal independent MP
Bob Katter
has backed broadcaster
Alan Jones
, who said Queensland has an unhealthy addiction to mining.

Mr Jones told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday that food security would be the biggest issue facing Australia in the future. He said Queensland Premier
Anna Bligh
and her deputy
Andrew Fraser
should stand down for their addiction to mining royalties.

Mr Jones, who was a senior adviser to former Liberal prime minister
Malcolm Fraser
, said coal seam gas mining was out of control in Queensland and would turn it into a “moon crater" and a wasteland.

He said “politicians have forgotten they are servants not masters" and nothing happened in Queensland without the approval of the mining industry.

Mr Fraser called the tirade “the screaming rants of a histrionic, failed former Liberal candidate" who had a “proven track record for spin and dishonesty". But Mr Jones found a friend in Mr Katter who said Katter’s Australian Party supported a 12-month moratorium on new coal seam gas developments.

“There is a growing movement of very angry people who are upset because their land is being taken due to the policies of the Labor government," Mr Katter said in a statement yesterday.

“It is also becoming clear to land-holders that the George Street Liberal cronies have no intention of protecting land-holders whether they own backyards or broadacre farms."

His party plans to stand candidates in dozens of seats at the next state election.

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A Greens ad hitting out at CSG mining is about to air on Queensland regional television. The party launched the ad in Brisbane yesterday and said it was time to protect farmland and water from CSG mining.

It said the CSG industry was planning to drill up to 40,000 wells in Queensland by 2030, each taking a minimum of one hectare of prime agriculture land.